Marsden railway station

Marsden National Rail

The view from the road bridge
Location
Place Marsden
Local authority Kirklees
Coordinates 53°36′12″N 1°55′51″W / 53.603230°N 1.930700°W / 53.603230; -1.930700Coordinates: 53°36′12″N 1°55′51″W / 53.603230°N 1.930700°W / 53.603230; -1.930700
Grid reference SE046118
Operations
Station code MSN
Managed by Northern
Number of platforms 3
DfT category F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2011/12 Increase 0.189 million
2012/13 Decrease 0.167 million
2013/14 Increase 0.182 million
2014/15 Decrease 0.169 million
2015/16 Increase 0.181 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE West Yorkshire (Metro)
Zone 5
History
Key dates Opened 1 August 1849 (1 August 1849)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Marsden from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Marsden railway station serves the village of Marsden near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. The station is on the Huddersfield Line, operated by Northern and is about 7 miles (11 km) west of Huddersfield station. It was opened in 1849 by the LNWR and is the last station before the West Yorkshire boundary with Greater Manchester.

Description

The station has three platforms which have each their own entrance and exit. Platforms 1 and 2 (which was once an island platform) are accessed by separate flights of stairs from the road over bridge which crosses the line to the west of the station. Platform 3 is accessed from the same road by a bridge across the nearby canal. Only platform 3 (which was built on the former Up Goods Loop in the mid-1980s by British Rail) has step-free access to the street.[1] Other than simple shelters on the platforms, there are no station buildings and the station is unmanned. Train running information can be obtained via digital information screens, timetable posters and telephone.

The station did have two additional platforms up until the mid-1960s (the current platform 2 having an outer face, with the fourth side platform standing where platform 3 is now) when the line was quadruple all the way from Huddersfield to Diggle Junction, but these were decommissioned when the main line was reduced to two tracks in 1966. The station avoided closure in the wake of the 1968 cutbacks that claimed many others on this section of route, but for some years acted as the terminus for local stopping trains from the Leeds direction[2] (hence the provision of signalling that allows trains to start back east from platforms 2 & 3) and had no regular service towards Stalybridge and Manchester.

The station is situated about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) to the east of the entrance to the Standedge rail and canal tunnels. The tunnel entrance, with its exhibition and boat trips, can easily be reached by walking along the towpath of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which runs adjacent to the station. The station's former goods yard is now the headquarters of the National Trust's Marsden Moor Estate, and the goods shed contains a public exhibition, Welcome to Marsden, which gives an overview of the area and its transport history.[3]

There was formerly another area of sidings situated to the south of the railway and canal, to the west of the station, which was originally built to accommodate the heavy traffic generated during the building of the reservoirs in the nearby Wessenden Valley. The steeply graded Huddersfield Corporation Waterworks Railway connected these sidings to the reservoir works. The area is now a heavily wooded country park, but an abutment of the long demolished bridge by which the waterworks railway crossed the River Colne can still be found amongst the vegetation.[4]

Services

From Monday to Saturday, Marsden is served by an hourly Northern service between Manchester Victoria & Huddersfield, with a few extra services at peak times. Many westbound trains run beyond Victoria to Wigan Wallgate during the daytime (one or two continue to Southport), whilst several eastbound services originate at Blackpool North. The latter normally run to Huddersfield only, but there are a small number that extend through to Leeds - one in the early morning (that starts here) and another in the evening (through train from Southport). There is also an hourly service in operation on Sundays.[5]

The more frequent TransPennine Express service, from Manchester Piccadilly station passes through Marsden without stopping. But some of these trains will stop at Greenfield and Marsden in the future as part of the Northern Hub project.

Preceding station   National Rail   Following station
Northern
Huddersfield Line
TerminusNorthern
Huddersfield Line
Historical railways
Diggle
Line open, station closed		   London and North Western Railway
Huddersfield Line		   Slaithwaite
Line and station open

References

  1. ↑ Marsden station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 28 November 2016
  2. ↑ Body, G. (1988), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, ISBN 1-85260-072-1, p111
  3. ↑ "Marsden Moor - What to see and do". National Trust. Archived from the original on 22 July 2006. Retrieved 24 December 2006.
  4. ↑ Botwell, Harold D (September 1979). Reservoir Railways of the Yorkshire Pennines. The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-242-0.
  5. ↑ Table 39 National Rail timetable, May 2017
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